should we buy

[lodge]

Also, expect the "way" you do Disney to change. With more opportunities and repeat visits, you'll likely venture from park commando.

 

[crisi]

Also, expect the "way" you do Disney to change. With more opportunities and repeat visits, you'll likely venture from park commando.

And expect Disney to change.

DVC creates a fairly long term commitment - plan on ten years to break even. During that time they might close or redesign a favorite attraction or restaurant. Put in a promotion during the time of year you travel that fills the park with people (and maybe not your kind of people). Drop perks, change their policies, drop their cleanliness standards.

People who bought SSR for Pleasure Island had the fireworks dropped, the PI (and the popular Adventurers Club) closed.

 

[BestDadEver]

I disagree I think you can save money on the lodging portion , plus have a bigger room then you would have for the same price .

People will say this on this site cause of the cost of everything else .You will spend money ,maybe more then you saved on the lodging when you go that you normaly wouldn't have . Plus it seems most people get DVC seem to visit more frequently so then that would equate to more money being spent . I guess but spending more money outside of the lodging doesn't effect the savings I received on the lodging . IMO .

I bought 100 points and plan to go every other year , I feel I am saving money with the way I decided to do it .

 

[BestDadEver]

You might wanna check Deb and Bill's post count before making this conclusion.

They most certainly have all the facts.

I agree with most of your post actually. But this opening made me truly laugh out loud.

You may want to check Deb and Bill's signature , before you put a whole lot of stock in a bunch of posts from disgruntled member .

 

[crisi]

I disagree I think you can save money on the lodging portion , plus have a bigger room then you would have for the same price .

People will say this on this site cause of the cost of everything else .You will spend money ,maybe more then you saved on the lodging when you go that you normaly wouldn't have . Plus it seems most people get DVC seem to visit more frequently so then that would equate to more money being spent . I guess but spending more money outside of the lodging doesn't effect the savings I received on the lodging . IMO .

I bought 100 points and plan to go every other year , I feel I am saving money with the way I decided to do it .

I think you CAN, but its fairly rare. IF you already stayed in Deluxes and now stay in DVC studios, keep the same travel patterns, you'll save money - but your room may be smaller, not larger (Rooms are huge at the Poly!) A moderate room - maybe, depends on how you do your TVM calculation.

The problem I have is not only the added expenses, but that DVC tends to change travel patterns. People who would never dream of paying cash for their brother and his family suddenly decide it would be fun to go with them and book an extra studio. People who have always been fine in a single room decide that the kids really need their own bed instead of a pullout, and are suddenly buying more points for a two bedroom. People start thinking about squeezing in a trip - they've never seen the Christmas decorations, they've never gone to Food and Wine, wouldn't the 5k be fun.....

(This is, in my opinion, one of the big pluses of DVC - its allowed us to treat friends and family, its made it affordable to put the kids in their own room on vacation - but its a plus that has cost us the "savings" we'd have gotten over other vacation options).

And no one knows what the future holds for any of us. Families that plan on going every other year without DVC might face a year of high unexpected expenses or loss of income - and put off their Disney vacation. Families that own DVC might (we have seen this over and over again) go anyway because the room is paid for.

However, if you are disciplined - and lucky enough that your plan holds through the term of your contract - you CAN save money. I just think that is probably less than 10% of the people who buy in.

And, if you get lucky, you can even make money. My BWV contract would sell for more than I bought it for more than a decade ago. If I sold it now, I'd have gotten all my Disney trips for less than dues. But that is a gamble, and not something anyone should factor into a financial decision.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I disagree I think you can save money on the lodging portion , plus have a bigger room then you would have for the same price .

People will say this on this site cause of the cost of everything else .You will spend money ,maybe more then you saved on the lodging when you go that you normaly wouldn't have . Plus it seems most people get DVC seem to visit more frequently so then that would equate to more money being spent . I guess but spending more money outside of the lodging doesn't effect the savings I received on the lodging . IMO .

I bought 100 points and plan to go every other year , I feel I am saving money with the way I decided to do it .

How many every other year trips, staying in a similar DVC villa did you take before you bought DVC?

You may want to check Deb and Bill's signature , before you put a whole lot of stock in a bunch of posts from disgruntled member .

Just because I liked it before Jim Lewis, doesn't mean I am disgruntled. I just liked it before Jim Lewis.

 

[TeresaNJ]

I think you CAN, but its fairly rare. IF you already stayed in Deluxes and now stay in DVC studios, keep the same travel patterns, you'll save money - but your room may be smaller, not larger (Rooms are huge at the Poly!) A moderate room - maybe, depends on how you do your TVM calculation.

The problem I have is not only the added expenses, but that DVC tends to change travel patterns. People who would never dream of paying cash for their brother and his family suddenly decide it would be fun to go with them and book an extra studio. People who have always been fine in a single room decide that the kids really need their own bed instead of a pullout, and are suddenly buying more points for a two bedroom. People start thinking about squeezing in a trip - they've never seen the Christmas decorations, they've never gone to Food and Wine, wouldn't the 5k be fun.....

(This is, in my opinion, one of the big pluses of DVC - its allowed us to treat friends and family, its made it affordable to put the kids in their own room on vacation - but its a plus that has cost us the "savings" we'd have gotten over other vacation options).

And no one knows what the future holds for any of us. Families that plan on going every other year without DVC might face a year of high unexpected expenses or loss of income - and put off their Disney vacation. Families that own DVC might (we have seen this over and over again) go anyway because the room is paid for.

However, if you are disciplined - and lucky enough that your plan holds through the term of your contract - you CAN save money. I just think that is probably less than 10% of the people who buy in.

And, if you get lucky, you can even make money. My BWV contract would sell for more than I bought it for more than a decade ago. If I sold it now, I'd have gotten all my Disney trips for less than dues. But that is a gamble, and not something anyone should factor into a financial decision.

Completely agree with everything you said! We only stayed at the deluxes prior to buying DVC, and with the kids getting older and wanting to bring friends, would have needed two rooms, so definitely saved money that way. However, with the extra trips we took because we had APs, and the room taken care of, we justified that we were still saving money, as we ONLY had to buy airfare and food, and we could eat on the cheap. Did we eat on the cheap? Nope. We did book extra rooms for family & friends. There go thousands of dollars worth of points for rooms that we would never pay cash for for others, had we not had our DVC.

In my opinion, buying into DVC cost us so much money in the other Disney expenses over the last 13 years. Did we enjoy ourselves? Yes. Did we think about these other expenses when we bought in? No. We had a total of 550 points between our two contracts, and it still wasn't enough with the amount of family we brought with us, now that our kids are grown and have kids.

After our last very unmagical trip, this past October 2013, we decided to sell our beloved DVCs. I never, ever thought I'd do this. We wanted to get our money out now, while we could still recoup our original purchase price.

Don't get me wrong, I love the DVC resorts, but for now, I'll rent someone else's points.

 

[BestDadEver]

I think you CAN, but its fairly rare. IF you already stayed in Deluxes and now stay in DVC studios, keep the same travel patterns, you'll save money - but your room may be smaller, not larger (Rooms are huge at the Poly!) A moderate room - maybe, depends on how you do your TVM calculation.

The problem I have is not only the added expenses, but that DVC tends to change travel patterns. People who would never dream of paying cash for their brother and his family suddenly decide it would be fun to go with them and book an extra studio. People who have always been fine in a single room decide that the kids really need their own bed instead of a pullout, and are suddenly buying more points for a two bedroom. People start thinking about squeezing in a trip - they've never seen the Christmas decorations, they've never gone to Food and Wine, wouldn't the 5k be fun.....

(This is, in my opinion, one of the big pluses of DVC - its allowed us to treat friends and family, its made it affordable to put the kids in their own room on vacation - but its a plus that has cost us the "savings" we'd have gotten over other vacation options).

And no one knows what the future holds for any of us. Families that plan on going every other year without DVC might face a year of high unexpected expenses or loss of income - and put off their Disney vacation. Families that own DVC might (we have seen this over and over again) go anyway because the room is paid for.

However, if you are disciplined - and lucky enough that your plan holds through the term of your contract - you CAN save money. I just think that is probably less than 10% of the people who buy in.

And, if you get lucky, you can even make money. My BWV contract would sell for more than I bought it for more than a decade ago. If I sold it now, I'd have gotten all my Disney trips for less than dues. But that is a gamble, and not something anyone should factor into a financial decision.

That's kind of my whole point . Just because you go to Disney and can't stop spending on other things doesn't make the room price change . Fact of the matter is I am staying in a 1br that would cost me close too ,if not more then $1000 per night for about a week . I can do that 25 times before the contract is up , and I am only $12k in . Not to mention the room prices will only go up every year .

Without DVC, would you go every other year and stay in a DVC villa?



Just because I liked it before Jim Lewis, doesn't mean I am disgruntled. I just liked it before Jim Lewis.

I don't know who Jim Lewis is . But I have seen a few of your sigs and its easy to tell you are fed up with something DVC is doing .

To answer your first question , I don't know I hadn't been to Disney since I was 13 till 2012 when I took a cruise and bought DVC on the cruise . What I did know is I wanted to be able to take my kids to Disney quite frequently and DVC will get me a much nicer room for the same money . It's just a plus that I'd brake even after 2-3 trips had I been paying OOP go the same room .

 

[CMOORE185]

You might wanna check Deb and Bill's post count before making this conclusion.

They most certainly have all the facts.

I agree with most of your post actually. But this opening made me truly laugh out loud.

Although I agree with Deb and Bill a lot I don't think it is wise to base someone's knowledge on a subject based on post count.

 

[TeresaNJ]

Although I agree with Deb and Bill a lot I don't think it is wise to base someone's knowledge on a subject based on post count.

True, but if you've been on this DVC board long enough, you can figure out that they have a lot of knowledge, and have been around the block. I'd trust their knowledge before that of someone who has just showed up recently, with minimal DVC knowledge.

 

[Deb & Bill]

...I don't know who Jim Lewis is . But I have seen a few of your sigs and its easy to tell you are fed up with something DVC is doing .

To answer your first question , I don't know I hadn't been to Disney since I was 13 till 2012 when I took a cruise and bought DVC on the cruise . What I did know is I wanted to be able to take my kids to Disney quite frequently and DVC will get me a much nicer room for the same money . It's just a plus that I'd brake even after 2-3 trips had I been paying OOP go the same room .

1 - I've only had two signature blocks since I started on the DIS. The last one has been since about 2006 (eight years, long before you signed on) when Jim Lewis took over. So I don't think you have seen "a few of your sigs". You've seen one.

2 - How do you know you are saving if you didn't go before and pay cash for a DVC resort every other year? That's my point. Without DVC you (generic you) don't go to WDW much and pay for a villa for cash. With DVC you go every other year, every year, twice a year and always stay in a DVC villa that otherwise you wouldn't be spending the money at WDW. So DVC does cost more on vacationing at WDW.

 

[chukdotcom]

That's kind of my whole point . Just because you go to Disney and can't stop spending on other things doesn't make the room price change . Fact of the matter is I am staying in a 1br that would cost me close too ,if not more then $1000 per night for about a week . I can do that 25 times before the contract is up , and I am only $12k in . Not to mention the room prices will only go up every year .




I don't know who Jim Lewis is . But I have seen a few of your sigs and its easy to tell you are fed up with something DVC is doing .

To answer your first question , I don't know I hadn't been to Disney since I was 13 till 2012 when I took a cruise and bought DVC on the cruise . What I did know is I wanted to be able to take my kids to Disney quite frequently and DVC will get me a much nicer room for the same money . It's just a plus that I'd brake even after 2-3 trips had I been paying OOP go the same room .

I think you need to take a more honest look at your math.

 

[Dean]

I disagree I think you can save money on the lodging portion , plus have a bigger room then you would have for the same price .

People will say this on this site cause of the cost of everything else .You will spend money ,maybe more then you saved on the lodging when you go that you normaly wouldn't have . Plus it seems most people get DVC seem to visit more frequently so then that would equate to more money being spent . I guess but spending more money outside of the lodging doesn't effect the savings I received on the lodging . IMO .

I bought 100 points and plan to go every other year , I feel I am saving money with the way I decided to do it .

You can make the numbers work most any way you want. IMO the most accurate measure of savings is what you paid before vs what DVC costs. I realize there are other value issues that are far more variable and difficult to quantify. Unless one compares DVC to DVC rack rates (poor choice unless you were paying that before owning) or a studio to deluxe rack rates (again, poor choice), it's essentially impossible to make the case that a 1 BR or 2 BR is the same as one would have paid for a single hotel room. I would agree with Crisi that MOST people are going to spend the money elsewhere and FEW are going to have the discipline to avoid that pitfall. Whether it's reasonable to make such choices is situation dependent.

You may want to check Deb and Bill's signature , before you put a whole lot of stock in a bunch of posts from disgruntled member .

A pessimist is an optimist with experience. The fact of the matter is DVC is just another nice timeshare that happens to be located on property for the WDW options. Truth be told, other than theming, they are behind a number of other timeshares side by side. To look at it any other way is to ask for disappointment.

 

[crisi]

I would agree with Crisi that MOST people are going to spend the money elsewhere and FEW are going to have the discipline to avoid that pitfall. Whether it's reasonable to make such choices is situation dependent.

To give people some credit - I believe that most people CHOOSE to spend the money elsewhere - it isn't that they lack discipline to stay in a studio and travel the way they always have, its that they take advantage of DVC to get additional value for the additional dollars they put in.

However, I also believe its fairly rare for people to buy in aware of the dynamic. They buy in having talked themselves into saving money - and within a year or two have started making less frugal choices. Which I think is pretty great - as long as they didn't start and remain on a financial shoestring.

If the money part of the equation NEEDS to work - you NEED to save money or there will be consequences, DVC isn't a good deal.